Joyeux Noel: This is a French movie but it also includes English and German. This is the story of the Christmas truce in WWI, in this telling it centers on groups of Scottish, French and German soldiers who do a wonderful thing in coming together, across battle lines for Christmas. Despite the good in this movie, it depressed me a lot, I think this took place the first year of the war, all these people had three or four more years of bloody war, more than that the truce didn't continue and at least in the movie these individuals were reprimanded. There are no happy endings before the end of a war.

Steamboat Bill Jr.: This is a fantastic Buster Keaton movie, the plot is not wonderful but that's not really what one watches a Keaton movie for and his work is amazing in this movie, including what I've heard called the most dangerous stunt he ever did. It is an amazing monument to the man's art and very funny.

Chocolate: I don't think I've written about this before, though I have seen it before. It's a good movie that perhaps falls in the 'foreign film' category. Judi Dench is in it and of course she's wonderful, there's a great ensemble cast, which I always love. The movie is thought provoking on many subjects, chief among those is what is or makes someone good? It's a good movie, sad and serious with light moments and a happy ending.

Hitch: On the surface this is a cute, enjoyable chick flick with some pointers on dating. If you think about it very hard at all or look too closely, things seem to fall apart. There are good parts and points made but not all, also the logic is confusing.

Miracle on 34th Street: First time seeing this all the way through and probably the last. I know this is a Christmas classic (ps, we're talking about the original here) but I just don't love it. The story's okay, but there's a lot of negativity before the happy ending and a lot of jumps.

Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon): I have been curious about this movie since I first heard about it, as I've previously mentioned, this is my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I did not finish watching it, I may as some point, I haven't decided. I loved the visual aesthetic of the movie but I wasn't loving the actors portraying Beatrice and Benedick, which is a big deal, not everyone will agree but to me they are the very heart and soul of the play, so not liking them is a big deal.

Hocus Pocus: This movie is considered a Halloween classic, most of my friends grew up watching it. This was my second time seeing it. I don't know if you have to grow up watching it to truly love it but I don't love it. There are amusing and entertaining parts but something about it just doesn't sit right with me, especially as a kids movie. It is better watching it with a group of people who love it.

Casper: Kinda the same story as above, although I don't know if it is the same level of a classic. It was okay but I have no real interest in seeing it again.

Meet the Mormons: I really loved this movie, it was such an uplifting movie, I commented to my friend that often one can leave a theater tense or depressed even but I left this movie feeling happy. Perhaps I should give the disclaimer that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as Mormons. This movie focuses on the lives and experiences of six individuals who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, people like you and me in many ways but people who are also inspiring. If you can find no other reason to see this movie, do it to see Gail Halverson, the candy bomber, he's a truly amazing man. For more on the movie see this and this. If you've ever wanted to know more about the Mormons, this is a good way to find out more, also the proceeds go to the red cross, so it's a win no matter what.

Maleficent: I wasn't quite sure what I would think of this movie, I knew lots of people raved about it but I never know if I'll also like something. I did like this movie, it was a very interesting retelling. It certainly had an agenda, which is not really a good or a bad thing but it was for sure there, it was geared for a feminist take and maybe also to bitter women? I don't think you have to be either one of those things to enjoy the movie but those were the slants I felt were there. I did enjoy the movie though.

The Cutting Edge: I really liked this movie, now that I try to think about why it's a little hard to put my finger on. I like the wit and humor of the movie. I enjoy watching the ice skating. It's just an enjoyable movie.

Million Dollar Arm: I liked this movie, an interesting and different kind of sports movie. This sports agency, trying to get by, they decide as a last effort, to search for a baseball pitcher in India (with the thought that a cricket bowler could transition to pitching). I don't know that this is a movie that I could watch again, part of the movie is the agent learning how to get out of his selfish existence. It's a good movie and a good message, but he's a super jerk and I don't think I could watch that a lot. Oh, also it's based on true events...as I think all these inspirational sports movies are.

Captain America The Winter Soldier: I didn't think that I would like this movie, I mostly needed context for Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, you were supposed to watch Captain America right when it came out before a certain episode. I didn't do that but now I have all kinds of context and understanding for what I've already seen and I already knew some of the crucial and intense information in the movie. It was a pretty good movie.

Monuments Men: I've really been looking forward to to seeing this movie, I'm an artist and I love learning about WWII. Monuments men is about men and women who worked to regain art from Nazi looters. Honestly I haven't given a lot of thought previous to this about how the great art and buildings of Europe made it through the war. I don't know how many people know this, it's mentioned in the movie but Hitler was a failed art student, as such he was creating his own huge art collection, from Europe's museums and from Jewish private collections. The Monuments Men were a small unit, working against the odds, architects and art historians or collectors. They went to Europe to protect and recover stolen art to return it where possible to it's rightful owners. This movie is important, so few people today have enough appreciation for art and what it means for us as humans.

The Last Reef: So this was a "4D" movie at the aquarium that I visited today. I can't say that any of the party were too impressed with the 4D part, 3D glasses, the seat shakes, smells, air and water get blasted at you sporadically mostly it distracted from the movie. The movie itself was interested and one of those guilt/panic inducing movies about how we're killing the planet. There were a lot of beautiful images though.

The Book Thief: This movie was so good, so beautiful. It was sad but it was a really great story. I love movies like this. I like that it's a different kind of WWII story, it's about good people in a horrible time/situation. I also appreciated that the accents were German rather than the standard British = foreign accent. I really recommend this movie!

Thor The Dark World: So I watched this to gain added context with Marvel's Agent's of SHIELD, I don't know that it really brought a ton of that though. I did have the realization though that if you combine Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, you might get Thor's world. Favorite part of the movie was when Loche (sp?) took the form of Captian America, pretty much worth the whole rest of the movie, which was okay. Ps, those dark elves are creepy.

Iron Man 3: I said after Avengers that I was done with the Marvel movies, but I still have been watching Marvels Agents of Shield and the connectivity between the show and the movies has made it so I need to get back on top of them. Anyway I liked this much better than I've liked other Iron Man movies, Tony Stark gets more likeable with every movie.

Austenland: So I had very low expectations for this movie, I'd read the book and not been impressed but my friend thought we should watch it, so we did. It is what it is, but it was better than I expected, some high points, some cringe points.

Saving Mr. Banks: I have been wanting to see this movie since I heard about it. It's made it to the dollar theater and I got to see it with a friend. It was such a fantastic movie! I love Mary Poppins as I believe I've stated previously and it was fascinating learning more of the back story of getting the movie made. Emma Thompson was of course wonderful as was Tom Hanks as P. L. Travers and Walt Disney and the rest of the cast was really great too. The movie was both very funny and happy as well as incredibly tragic, but as a good Disney movie should, it ends on a happy note (and raised on Disney, I believe very much in happy endings.) I would now really like to learn more about both Mrs. Travers and Walt Disney. I highly recommend the movie.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2: Um, so first off, I haven't seen the first movie, there were things I liked about this movie, and things I didn't love. It's interesting and the kids I was watching it seemed to enjoy it. There were way more food puns than I really needed.

Catching Fire: A preface, I am not really a fan of dystopian things, that being said I liked the first Hunger Games enough to see it twice. I did not enjoy this movie at all, there's a lot of unhappy and ugly in this movie, it's almost all there is. I have a really hard time getting more of that in fiction when there's already so much in the world. By the end of this movie I felt like I did after watching GATCA (don't watch it, it sort of scarred me), needing something desperately to make me laugh so I could go on. I have no desire to have anything more to do with the hunger games.

Victor Victoria: I will first note that this movie may not be for everyone, but I find it quite funny. Victoria (Julie Andrews) is destitute until she meets up with Toddy and they concoct a plan for her to become Victor, an amazing female impersonator. That's going great until a handsome man shows up.

Kon Tiki: This was on the list of International Cinema movies for the semester and it sounded interesting. The film was listed as Norwegian (which it is)(as was a lot of the crew of the expedition) and so I assumed that the film would be in Norwegian and I'd be watching with subtitles, I was surprised when I found that the film was made in English (which was nice because reading subtitles isn't really anyone's favorite I would guess). I guess it makes some sense in this day in age, so many Scandinavians speak great English and it gives the film a wider market. Anyway it was a really good film, I don't know that much about the Kon Tiki voyage and so I couldn't say how historically accurate the movie is but it is really good. I was kind of ridiculous actually, as a historical event I knew roughly how the movie would end but the movie got so intense at one point that I had to stop for a little while. I really recommend seeing it, you'll learn something, it's beautifully filmed and just an all around good movie.

The Avengers: I guess I forgot to write about this movie, I really liked it, much more than any of the other Avenger movies, it was nice to have the background though and to be able to put some things together. It was fun to see that the diva attitudes come together. Recommend it.

From Up on Poppy Hill: I've really been excited to see this latest Miyazaki movie, it's not as fantastical as the average Miyazaki movie but it was really good. It is helpful to have background knowledge of Japan in the time period, which one of the friends I watching with was able to provide (history majors are pretty useful to have around).

Schultze Gets the Blues: I had high hopes for this movie, a German polka man retires and discovers zydeco. As I watched it though I found myself thinking back to when I watched Waking Ned Divine, it was a nice, sweet story but the pacing and filming style are radically different from what I'm used to. I probably wouldn't watch it again but it was a nice show.  Oh, ps, this is a German movie if I didn't mention that before. Note: I was both shocked and unimpressed by the use of the "N" word in this movie at one point.